Young people are critical
actors in preventing conflicts and supporting
peace – Mr. Nilotpal Deka, Advocate & Columnist,
the Assam Tribune
August 12, 2017, USTM : Today on the day of
International Youth Day, University of Science
and Technology Meghalaya recalled the utility
and importance of maintaining peace and harmony
and youth as a catalyst to that end. North East
Region being generally misconstrued as a
stronghold of militancy, USTM students were
inspired to be a harbinger of peace of peace and
harmony in the region. The department of
English, USTM had observed International Youth
Day on 12th August, 2017. This year as charted
out by United Nations, the theme of
International Youth Day 2017 is "Youth Building
Peace". In keeping with the UN Resolution, the
department of English had taken up an initiative
to commemorate the day through a debate
competition on the topic " Youth and Social
Media : harbinger of peace ?" where a total
number of 23 students of USTM from various
departments took part so enthusiastically. The
contestants while being judged by Mr. Nilotpal
Deka, Advocate and Columnist, The Assam Tribune
and Dr. Amit Choudhury, Dean, School of Business
Sciences had appreciated the spirit of the
youngsters, their positive attitude towards o
contribute some way or the other for bringing a
social change, equality, peace and harmony. Dr.
Dayanand Pathak, HoD, English had moderated the
debate proceedings and in his opening address he
stressed on the need of the youth to innovate in
fields that will bring about peace. The winners
of the competition are as follows, first prize
went to Kanak Kharbongkar from Dept. of law, 2nd
prize went to Madhurjya Kalita from Dept. of
Civil Engineering, RIST, 3rd prize was bagged by
Mahasweta Chakrabarty from Dept. of English,
most promising Debater award had gone to Rambo
Regan from Dept. of English.
Meanwhile, it should be mentioned that
International Youth Day 2017 is dedicated to
celebrating young people’s contributions to
conflict prevention and transformation as well
as inclusion, social justice, and sustainable
peace. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable
Development committed to fostering peaceful and
inclusive societies and affirmed that
“Sustainable development cannot be realized
without peace and security”. Goal 16 aims to
ensure responsive, inclusive, participatory and
representative decision-making at all levels.
The World Programme of Action for Youth, which
provides a policy framework and practical
guidelines to improve the situation of young
people, also encourages “promoting the active
involvement of youth in maintaining peace and
security”.
On the other hand, the department, the
department of Library Science and Information,
USTM had observed National Librarian Day to mark
126th birth anniversary of Dr. S Ranganathan,
father of library science. The program was
started off with the lighting of the lamps and
speeches by Dr. P K Barooah, retired technical
official, CSIR, NIST who highlighted the
contribution of Dr. S Ranganathan and the
emerging importance of librarianship as a
profession for career development. Other
speakers were Dr. Amit Choudhury, Dean, School
of Business Sciences, Dr. R K Sharma, Pro VC,
USTM, Dr. Ajmal Borbhuyan, Registrar, RIST and
others, followed by an audio visual presentation
by the students of Library Science and
Information, on the life and works of Dr.
Ranganathan.